Porte finished safely in 19th place, exorcising the ghost of last year’s Tour disaster at the same coastal town.

Then, the BMC team leader was caught out when the peloton split near the finish and he lost eight seconds.

Simon Gerrans’ overall winning margin over Porte was nine seconds.

“There’s so much to lose on a stage like this and not a lot to gain,” Porte said after yesterday’s finish.

He retained his 20-second overall lead over Spaniard Gorka Izaguirre, whose hopes of somehow overhauling the Tasmanian took another hit in a three-rider crash near the finish.

While Izaguirre lost no time, given the crash happened less than three kilometres from the finish, he suffered some nasty-looking gravel rash.

A race media release stated he had been taken to hospital “as a precaution and will have x-rays to rule out any fractures”.

“Race doctor Mark Fisher says it totally depends on his hospital assessment as to whether he will start tomorrow,” the release said.

“I saw that, it was pretty close,” Porte said of the crash.

“You don’t like to see that happen.

“I heard Izaguirre crashed there, so that’s not good either for the race.”

The Tour continues today with a 149.5km stage from Norwood to Campbelltown, with the stage looping through the Adelaide Hills, which could provide another sprint finish opportunity for Ewan.

-AAP

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